Big Head Todd and the Monsters tonight at First Avenue

With the unforgettable, unforgivable single "Bittersweet," Big Head Todd and the Monsters barged into our collective awareness uninvited, drank our orange juice straight from the jug, and fell asleep on the couch.

And there they've stayed, snoozing on that proverbial hide-a-bed for the last ten or so years, awakening every so often for a coast t ocoast tour, or a greatest hits release, or even a new album of studio material.

Big Head Todd at the Mainroom has become something of a winter tradition. Round about this time last year, the Monsters cruised through to publicly punch the clock in front of a healthy crowd yearning to relive the heady days of 1993.

They might be gate crashers of our already crowded listening space. And it may be true that their reputation is of that low-impact, Already Been Chewed variety.

But they're so quiet and affable that we haven't really had the heart to boot them out. Who cares that they keep company with some of the more room temperature acts of their period (Hootie, Dave Matthews, Crash Test Dummies, etc.)? We have plenty of couches to crash on. No sense being a bad host.